Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
- Life
Scientists Say: Hominid
Scientists are still working out what counts as a hominid. Some say it’s just people and our extinct ancestors. Others say add more apes.
- Humans
By not including everyone, genome science has blind spots
Little diversity in genetic databases makes precision medicine hard for many. One historian proposes a solution, but some scientists doubt it’ll work.
- Health & Medicine
Some young adults will volunteer to get COVID-19 for science
Researchers will soon give some healthy people the new coronavirus. Their young volunteers have agreed to get sick to speed coronavirus research.
- Agriculture
Soil (and its inhabitants) by the numbers
Teeming with life, soils have more going on than most of us realize.
- Animals
Unique dialects help naked mole-rats tell friends from foes
Computer analysis reveals that these social rodents communicate with speech patterns distinct to each colony.
- Chemistry
Let’s learn about acids and bases
Acids give away particles with positive charge. Bases accept positively charged particles. They are both critical for chemical reactions.
- Animals
A new chameleon species may be the world’s tiniest reptile
The newly described reptiles live in the northern forests of Madagascar. Deforestation there may also leave them on the brink of extinction.
- Animals
Giant worms may have hidden beneath the ancient seafloor to ambush prey
Twenty-million-year-old tunnels unearthed in Taiwan may have been home to creatures similar to today’s monstrous bobbit worms.
- Animals
How do you build a centaur?
A centaur has the torso of a human and the body of a horse. It may sound cool, but it wouldn’t work very well.
- Archaeology
Harsh Ice Age winters may have helped turn wolves into dogs
In the Ice Age, Arctic hunters may have turned to some game for their fatty bones. Much of those animals’ meat might have been left to domesticate dogs.
- Health & Medicine
Early details emerge about the new U.K. coronavirus variant
The variant may spread more easily from person to person. That could make continuing to wear masks all the more important, experts say.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Medullary bone
Medullary bone is a layer that forms inside bird and dinosaur bones. It’s a source of the calcium in eggshells.
